Topic: wisdom of emptiness.

Topic: wisdom of emptiness.

According to the sixth perfection we can found that the wisdom of emptiness excerpt from ‘awakening the mind from basic Buddhist meditations by Geshe Namgyal Wangchen, The fully awakened clear state of mind that realizes the truth of emptiness. As we know the emptiness of inherent existence is the wisdom we seek. Hence, it is called prajna in Sanskrit. When we achieve this wisdom we are able to realize emptiness from the depth of our own personal experience, beyond intellectualization.

Only this wisdom has the true power to cut our delusions from their root completely. No matter how many other virtuous qualities we may have, there is no way to achieve the complete elimination of our delusion unless and until the full realization of emptiness is gained. Therefore, whether we seek liberation, it is essential for us to seek this wisdom.

To gain the full realization of emptiness we must necessarily have developed our inner understanding to the point where we can fully negate the inherently existent self. Yet at the same time not fail to maintain the conventional reality of the self the truth that self does exist in general. This is the perfect middle way of understanding emptiness, as taught by Buddha and elaborated by master Nagarjuna, who established the Madhyamika, or middle way school. However, we cannot gain the full realization of emptiness without a foundation. Hence Buddha taught the emptiness of the substantially existent self and the emptiness of the externally existent self as a base for understanding the most subtle emptiness, the emptiness of inherent existence.

Among the followers of Buddha’s teachings on emptiness there arose four different lineage holders of his teachings on emptiness, known as the four tenets of Buddhist schools:

1.       Vaibashika ( followers of the early commentaries realist - the Mahavibhasa on the sutras)

2.       Sautantrika (sutra citers/ sutra followers)

3.       Cittamatra ( mind only)

4.       Madhyamika ( the middle way)

The Madhyamaka school holds the view that the emptiness of the inherently existence as elaborated by Nagarjuna. The first two forms of emptiness, the emptiness of the substantially existent self and the emptiness of the externally existent self are taught as steps towards the full understanding of the most subtle emptiness.

The importance of seeking is the truth of emptiness: the truth of emptiness of all Buddha’s teachings. The realization of the truth is not only the ultimate method for us to cut our delusion from their root, but is also key path that leads us to the perfect state of Buddhahood. It is important to cut our delusions if we truly wish to be liberated from the suffering of samsara, not to mention how important it is for us to control and eliminate our own delusion to be able to help others effectively and in a sincere and pure way. Hence as Buddha says in the perfection sutras: the wisdom realize the emptiness of the inherently existent self is the mother of both those who reach beyond the suffering of cycle existence for their own peace and those who attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings.

Similarly Chandrakirti points out: all those who go beyond cyclic existence have attained their libration through the perfect teaching of the enlightened ones. These are born from bodhisattvas who fully develop themselves to benefit others. Bodhisattvas in turn are born from three seeds only: the realization of emptiness he mined of enlightenment and great compassion. If we look at the origin of our anger, attachment and so on, we can clearly see from our own experience that they arise from our misconception of self, holding the view the ‘I’ exists inherently. Thus it is clear why only the realization of emptiness has the power to cut our delusion completely. No matter how much and for how long we might concentrate on understanding emptiness according to the middle way.

The pure understanding of emptiness as taught by Buddha and elaborated by the great nagarjuna and subsequently by his two main disciples, Buddhapalita and Chandrakirti, is the understanding of emptiness according to the middle way: completely negating the inherently existent self whilst maintaining the existence of the self that is commonly known to everyone without damaging it. This realization is what lama Tsong Khapa Calles the union of the two truths. This means that although our self lacks an inherently existent nature, it nevertheless exists and carries out activities, good actions leading to happiness and bad actions lead to unhappiness. Each and every thing that exists has two natures: an ultimate nature and a conventional nature we have no trouble understanding the law of cause and effect.

It is most important that we differentiate between which kind of self should be negated and which should be maintained. If we negate too much, we will find it difficult to maintain the self that is commonly known to us and that is the base of our identification. If we negate this normal self, we will have problem in maintaining our understanding of the law of cause and effect. We will see no point in virtuous actions and not understand that our suffering is the result of past non-virtuous actions. This is the extreme of nihilism. For those who truly wish to understand the root of suffering, it is very important to maintain the self that is responsible for happiness and unhappiness. The self cannot be reduced to our material body; it is more than this; it is something that comes from our past lives and goes onto the next life. Seeing this, we can understand that the suffering we experience does not come from outside, but it is a consequence of our karma. Happiness also comes from past lives. Our virtuous actions of this life can lead to happiness in our next life. Our practice of dharma can eventually lead us to enlightenment.

However, when we come to establish that the self is not something limited to our material body but comes from past lives and goes to the next life, some people non- Buddhist masters.

For example: go to the extreme of eternalism. They believe that the self exists independently and eternally. On the one hand this belief helps to maintain our understanding ok karma; on the other hand, however it strengthens our self-grasping because it views the self as something solid. This leads us to cling to our self thus keeping us bound to the suffering of cyclic existence.

Therefore Buddha taught the middle way: that self in not limited to this very material body, but comes from our past life and goes onto the next. It does not exist solidly but is something merely imputed or labeled by our mind on the basis of the aggregates of which we are composed. If we do not negate enough then we will not be able to negate the inherently existent self which the mind clings. As a result we will not be able to eliminate our delusions.

Nagarjuna says: The nihilistic view only leads to the misery of taking rebirth in the lower realms and binds us to the suffering of cyclic existence. Therefore only the middle way, which is free from these two extreme views, can lead us to true liberation.

In the traditional analytical contemplation on emptiness there are three stages:

1.       Recognizing the appearance of the inherently existent self,

2.       Negating the inherently existent self,

3.       Maintain the meditation on the emptiness of the inherently existent self.

 Conclusion:

The wisdom of emptiness is the ultimate teaching in Buddhism. Its main tenet is that our suffering is caused by our inability to perceive the true nature of reality. There teachings on emptiness are very subtle, profound and deeply transforming. Yet with correct understanding. Wisdom in Buddhism can refer to two types of insight: conventional wisdom and ultimate wisdom. So, conventional wisdom relates to understanding the conventional world, or the world as we know it.  Ultimate wisdom refers to direct realization which is non-dualistic, and contradicts the way in whcivh we ordinary perceive the world. 

Topic: meditation on emptiness

Topic: meditation on emptiness

.How to meditate on emptiness

In case you are interested in practicing meditation on emptiness, I'm going to explain a couple of simple but quite helpful techniques for doing so.

 The first technique is one that I often mention during meditation courses — walking meditation on emptiness. This is a kind of mindfulness meditation but it's much more profound than the usual mindfulness of walking where you simply maintain awareness of "I'm walking" and so forth. If you can practice that kind of mindfulness of walking — "I'm walking" you can also practice mindfulness of stealing while robbing a bank or picking somebody's pocket "I'm stealing." Actually, if you are stealing, it's probably not such a bad idea to be mindful — otherwise you might get caught! Mindfulness meditation should be more than just watching what you are doing. What you really need to watch is your motivation. If you don't watch your mind, you don't know what's motivating your actions. What you should be doing is detecting negative motivation, the cause of suffering, and changing it into positive. You should be applying your meditation like a medicine to the eradication of harmful thoughts, the delusions — the disturbing emotions that harm yourself and others. You need to eradicate these and make your mind healthy and your attitude beneficial, just as the Buddha explained in the verse I quoted before: Abandon non-virtue, the cause of suffering, and practice virtue, the cause of happiness. Transform negative motivation into positive so that your actions will become virtuous. In this way you will not waste your life but make it meaningful. At least you won't be harming yourself or others. The way to practice more meaningful mindfulness is this. For example, when you're sitting or when you're walking, ask yourself the question, "What am I doing?" Then your mind will answer, "I'm sitting," "I'm walking," "I'm eating," depending on what it is that you're doing. "I'm cooking," "I'm talking." Whatever you are doing, you can meditate on emptiness. One way in which you can do this is to reply to the answer "I'm walking" with another question: "Why do I say 'I'm walking'?" Then you analyze; you look for the reason. What you find is, "The only reason I say this is that my aggregate of body, the base I label "I," is walking." Your body is walking — just because of that, your mind labels and believes "I'm walking." After you've done that, check how your I appears to you at that moment effect this has had on your I. Has there been a change or not? Doing this meditation again and again helps you see the false I more and more clearly. The more clearly you see the false I, the emotional I, the I that doesn't exist, the more clearly you see, the better you recognize, emptiness — the better idea of emptiness you get. The second technique for meditating on emptiness is one that takes you back to your childhood, to the time before you had learned the alphabet. Imagine yourself before you knew your ABCs. You're sitting in the classroom and your teacher draws a letter on the blackboard for the first time.

So the three lines together are not the A either. So when you see that three-line pattern on a blackboard, there's no A on the pattern, but there's an A on the blackboard, and the only reason you can say that is that the pattern is on the blackboard. Similarly, when you look out your window and see a car go by, analyze what happens. First of all, before anything appears, you don't label "car" because you haven't seen anything. There's no reason for you to label, "There goes a car." When a car does go by, you don't label it "car" the very moment you see it because for your mind to choose that particular label, "car," you have to see something first, as we've been saying. What causes your mind to create the label? There has to be a prior reason. You have to see something before you create the label. What you see is the base — the phenomenon that has the appropriate shape and performs the function of going here and there, transporting people and so forth — you have to see that first. The label "car" comes after that. First you see the base; then you see the car. You see the car after you have applied the label. Therefore, it is a hallucination. Whatever you see go by — a person, a cat, a dog, a motorcycle — it works the same way. Under normal circumstances, when we do not analyze what we see, when a car goes by it looks as if either the base itself is the car or there's a car on that base, and that that's what's going by. This is a complete hallucination. There's no car there, just as there's no A on that configuration of three lines.

The car exists but it's not there. It's the same thing with the A. When we look at the A and do not analyze, do not meditate, it looks as if the A is there, on that pattern. That too is a complete hallucination. That is the object to be refuted — the A that is there not merely imputed by the mind. By analyzing in this way, you can recognize your everyday hallucinations, your false view, and understand what you have to realize as empty. What emptiness means. Analysis makes it clear. Practicing mindfulness of this, meditating on this, helps you to control your emotional mind. It becomes almost impossible for emotional thoughts, such as attachment and anger, to arise. That means you stop motivating karma, the cause of samsara, the cause of the lower realms. Thus it becomes incredible protection, a great source of happiness and peace, and the cause of liberation and enlightenment for yourself and all other sentient beings. By developing this wisdom and practicing bodhicitta, you yourself can attain enlightenment and lead all other sentient beings to enlightenment as well. Therefore, if you really want to practice Dharma, meditate, and see some development in your life, if you want to clarify and deepen your understanding of emptiness and bring yourself closer to realizing it, these techniques might help, even though they don't utilize philosophical concepts, the four-point analysis and so forth. By practicing these techniques, you can see more clearly how the mind is not I, which is what many people think. Many things become clear.